SCRATCH HANDOUT

INTRODUCTIONScratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create interactive stories, games, and animations – and share your creations with others on the web.BASIC INGREDIENTS OF A SCRATCH PROJECTScratch projects are made up of objects called sprites. You can change how a sprite looks by giving it a different costume. You can make a sprite look like a person or a train or a butterfly or anything else. You can use any image as a costume: you can draw an image in the Paint Editor, import an image from your hard disk, or drag in an image from a website. You can give instructions to a sprite, telling it to move or play music or react to other sprites. To tell a sprite what to do, you snap together graphic blocks into stacks, called scripts. When you click on a script, Scratch runs the blocks from the top of the script to the bottom.

2. SCRATCH INTERFACE STAGEThe Stage is where you see your stories, games, and animations come to life. Sprites move and interact with one another on the Stage. Click the Presentation Mode button when you want to present your project. To exit Presentation Mode, press the Esc key.Click the View Mode buttons to switch between small and large stage view. You can use small stage view to display Scratch on small screens or to expand the Scripts Area.NEW SPRITESWhen you start a new Scratch project, it begins with a single cat sprite. If you want to delete a sprite, select the scissors from the Toolbar and click on the sprite. Or right-click (Mac: Ctrl+click) on the sprite and

select Delete from the pop-up menu. To make a sprite that looks like part of the Stage background, right-click (Mac: Ctrl+click) the Stage and select grab screen region for new sprite.

SPRITE LISTThe Sprite List displays thumbnails for all sprites in a project. The name of each sprite appears below its thumbnail. Just as a sprite can change its appearance by switching costumes, the Stage can change its appearance by switching Backgrounds. To see and edit the scripts, backgrounds, and sounds associated with the Stage, click on the Stage icon at the left of the Sprite List.